Making sense (and, sometimes, nonsense) out of Current News, Issues, Politics

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Dallas and the False Narratives of Obama and Black Lives Matter

It was just a matter of time before the mass killing of police officers was bound to happen. Anytime you have a group, such as Black Lives Matter and even the President of the United States, spreading the belief that white cops are racists and only want to kill blacks, Dallas was waiting to happen. And, what happened in Dallas is sure to be replicated elsewhere.

This belief, that white cops are racist is based on complete dishonesty. The more this false narrative is repeated and believed, more blacks will die as cops increasingly back away from aggressive policing for fear of losing their jobs or going to prison. Meanwhile, record numbers of murders keep piling up in cities like Chicago where, already this year, 267 blacks have been killed, and 77% of all the murder victims are black.

According to the website "The Counted" which started tracking people killed by police beginning in 2015, there were 1146 persons killed by police in that year due to a variety of reasons including vehicular deaths. Of that total, 40 unarmed blacks were shot and killed. To put this number into perspective, according to the FBI, our police arrest more than 2.5 million blacks each year. Not a fact that supports the perception that there is widespread killing of unarmed blacks by police such as the mantra; "Hands up...Don't Shoot" suggests. Also, that 40 blacks were killed makes no distinction as to the race of the cop that killed them. But, even if they were all white, the number is still extremely small relative to the number of blacks that are arrested each year.

This is not to say that any cop involved in a questionable death shouldn't be tried and convicted if warranted. But, we should let our legal system decide that. Not take to the streets and start revenge killing white police officers .

The conversation that Black Lives Matter and Obama should be having is why there is an almost wholesale slaughter of blacks by other blacks. In 2013, the FBI reported that 2,491 blacks were murdered. That was 41% of all murders reported in that year. Of that, 90% or 2,245 of those were committed by other blacks. But, no one wants to talk about that. Instead, the discussion is all about the 40 or so, unarmed blacks that might be shot by police each year.

Lastly, the President stated that blacks are twice as likely to be arrested than whites, the reason is that blacks commit more crimes relative to their share of our population. For example, while blacks only make up 13% of the population, 51% of murders in this country and 56% of robberies are committed by blacks. Also, in a recent Gallup poll, 78% of blacks said they were "not treated less fairly" by cops; although this is down from 81% in 2013. Thus, the claim or implication that there is widespread harassment of black citizens by police, for only racial reasons, does not appear to be true.